'Cyber Monday' Set to Smash Records

Black Friday sales were down year-on-year, but this year's Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest online shopping day in history. Spending on the year's most important day for online sales is expected to top last year's $1.25 billion by around 20% to hit $1.5 billion, the chairman of digital analysis group ComScore tells MarketWatch. Online spending on the Monday after Thanksgiving has more than doubled over the last five years.

But Black Friday itself saw plenty of online shopping, with sales nudging over $1 billion for the first time even as shoppers thronged brick-and-mortar stores, the AP reports. Analysts say that Cyber Monday may soon cease to be the busiest day for online sales, since fewer people now rely on computers at work to do their shopping. Online sales on Thanksgiving Day this year surged by 32% over 2011 to reach $633 million. (More Black Friday stories.)